Episode Transcript
All right, if you take God's precious word, and we'll look here in Proverbs chapter 12, verse 20.
Proverbs chapter 12, verse 20.
The title of the message tonight is "Peacemakers and Troublemakers."
Peacemakers and troublemakers.
And many people walk around with a heavy heart today.
And it's all because of what they store in their heart.
And trying to make their heart lighter by what they store in it, they actually end up making it heavier.
And such is the case tonight for those who store in their hearts, if you'll look now in your text in verse 20, at the word "deceit."
Deceit.
Now the word "deceit" here, as we've seen in this book of Proverbs in the past, a few studies we've had, it has the idea of committing fraud against someone.
Not a simple lie, but the idea of committing fraud against someone.
And we've seen so much fraud here lately in our government.
It's quite remarkable, quite astounding.
But fraud cannot exist without an atmosphere of deceit.
I believe you all would agree with that.
I've worked a lot of fraud cases in my investigative career.
And there's never a time when fraud is committed that there is not deceit involved.
And the root word of this word "fraud" here in the Hebrew, it has the idea of throwing something at someone or shooting something at someone.
So this type of deceit is intended to harm people, to fraud people in some way.
And sadly, this type of harmful deceit, it resides in the heart of some people.
Solomon said this type of deceit, if you'll look back in your text now, is in the heart.
And I have that word "heart" underscored in my sermon notes that I typed out.
I want you to understand that God did not design the heart of man to be a home for deceit.
He designed our heart to harbor particular things, and deceit is not one of them.
Now, a lot of people get confused about what the word "heart" means in the Bible.
One of the people that wrote in today in his email talked about the stereotypical thing that I've heard in churches growing up so many times, that the difference between heaven and hell is six inches, the difference between your head and your heart.
And so I felt sorry for him when I read that, and have not had a chance to respond.
But that type of nonsense is corrected by a correct interpretation of the Scriptures.
But a lot of people get confused about what the heart is.
The Hebrew root word for "heart" comes from a root word that means "to be enclosed."
Right?
So you've got something that's enclosed, and whatever's enclosed inside there, that Hebrew word, that root word has the idea of being a heart, just something inside, wrapped around, and enclosed.
So the word "heart," because of that, is used to describe that blood pumping organ that is enclosed within our chest.
The heart is considered the innermost organ in the human body.
It is surrounded and protected by everything, because it's so important.
So that is the heart of the human body.
It's enclosed deep down inside.
And as we have an innermost organ, we also have an innermost person.
Okay?
So you are listening to my outward person right now, and everybody sees and interacts with the outward man.
I am interacting with you tonight based on the outward man.
You are interacting with me based on the outward man.
We all have an outward person that everybody interacts with, but we all have an inner person that can't be seen, and that inner person interacts with ourselves, and it interacts with God.
I'll repeat that again.
We all have an inner person, and that inner person, that person that is enclosed deep down inside of us, interacts with ourselves, and it interacts with God.
When we think, that is our inner person interacting with ourselves.
Luke chapter 7, verse 39.
Luke chapter 7, verse 39.
"Now when the Pharisee, which had bidden him, sought, he spake within himself, saying, 'This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner.'"
That was the Pharisee speaking about Jesus.
But the Pharisee spake within himself, so that was the inner person speaking and communing with that Pharisee.
Now what is that inner person?
That is the heart.
That is that inner man that's enclosed inside our outer man.
So the heart is the inner man.
So we commune with our heart, with ourself.
He spake within himself.
You see that?
He spake within himself.
Now when we pray, on the other hand, that is our inner person not speaking with ourselves.
It's our inner person speaking with God.
First Samuel chapter 1, verses 11 and 13.
This is speaking about Hannah.
"And she vowed a vow and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.'
And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord."
Now she's praying right now.
All that we just read that she said, she's praying to the Lord.
"And as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth."
In other words, Eli the priest, he's watching her mouth.
"Now Hannah, she spake in her heart."
You listening to that?
She spake in her heart.
In other words, here's this outward man, this outward mouth is moving as she's praying.
That's her outer person.
But her inner person is speaking where?
In her heart.
So the inner person is equivalent to the heart of that person.
You see that?
Our inner man is our heart, and so her heart was speaking to God.
Her lips on her outer person was moving.
It says, "Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard."
Now I bet every one of y'all tonight have prayed like that before.
Have you ever prayed like that before?
Where you've got your head bowed, you're all by yourself, and you're on, and you're praying, you can't hear your voice, but just human nature as you're praying, you're mouthing the words with your lips, but you're hearing the words not with your ear, you're hearing the words in your inner man.
Your heart hears the words, and God hears the words, okay?
Because God looks on the inside of man, the Bible says, "The Lord looketh on the," what?
"On the heart."
Remember when God told Samuel that?
He said, "Don't look on the outer man, the Lord looks on the heart."
Now the heart is that inner man, and so here she is with an inner man praying to God, and God can look on and hear the words of her heart.
And I bet everybody who's listening tonight has prayed like that before.
So there's no difference between the heart, that inner man, and the mind, because she could hear the words in her mind, she's framing the words in her mind.
All it is is the inner person.
When you're thinking on the inside, that is your heart thinking.
When you're praying on the inside, that is your heart praying.
The heart, the mind, the inner person, the inner man, it's all the same thing, okay?
It is you contemplating, speaking to yourself, the inner man communicating with yourself, or the inner man communicating with God.
It's the inner man communicating to the person within, or to the God above.
And so hopefully you'll understand that there is no difference between the heart and mind.
If you think to yourself that you are trusting in Christ for your salvation, in your mind you think, "I'm depending, I'm resting my hope on Jesus," then that is your inner person trusting in Him, which means you are trusting Him in your heart, you see?
In your mind, which is your mind.
And that means deceit occupies the minds of some people, it occupies the inner person of some people, particularly, look back in your text now, of them that imagine evil, of them that imagine evil.
Now the word imagine here means to scratch, to scratch evil.
And when it's slow at work, I have a stack, I don't know if any of y'all watched the Beverly Hillbillies much growing up, but I loved it when Jethro Bowden did his ciphering.
It was hilarious to me, and they thought he was a mathematical genius whenever he did his ciphering.
Well, I've got a stack of scrap paper at work, and I affectionately refer to it as my ciphering paper.
And when it gets slow, sometimes they'll get me a piece of ciphering paper, and I'll scratch out my plans for the future on there.
Maybe it's financial, maybe it's something else, but I'll scratch out my plans for the future.
And people who scratch out plans to do evil, the Bible says, people who scratch out plans to harm other people, the Bible says those people have deceit in their inner man.
They have deceit in their hearts.
Now keep that in mind, their hearts are filled with deceit.
Look back in your text now, but to the counselors of peace, to the counselors of peace, we're going to we're going to tie all this together here in just a moment.
To the counselors of peace.
Now the word counselor here, it has that same kind of idea as that word imagine or scratch.
It's not the same word, but it has that same type of idea because the word counselor here, it's someone who makes plans for himself or someone who gives counsel concerning some type of plan to somebody else.
And so it's someone who makes plans for himself or for someone else that they may give that counsel or that plan to.
So Solomon is showing us the difference tonight between someone who purposes to do evil and someone who purposes to establish peace.
Or we could put it this way, someone who purposes to bring harm to another person, someone who purposes to establish peace for another person.
Okay.
Now Solomon says that someone who purposes to do evil has deceit in his heart.
So I want you to notice tonight that there is a relationship between what we purpose in our hearts and what we have in our hearts.
There is a relationship between what we have in our hearts and what we have in our hearts.
There is a relationship between what we purpose in our heart and what we end up retaining and having in our heart.
They're not the same.
One is a byproduct of the other.
What I purpose in my heart then creates a byproduct that then resides in my heart.
So what we purpose in our hearts determines our inner state of being.
What we purpose in our hearts determines our inner state of being.
Those who purpose evil, they suffer, they have an inner state of being of deception.
They suffer deception as their inner state of being.
2 Timothy chapter 3 verse 13 says, "But evil men," now remember those who purpose to do evil, those who devise evil, "But evil men and seducers," or those who deceive, right?
Those who commit fraud.
"But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving," that's what they purpose in their hearts, "and being deceived."
That's the byproduct.
It affects their inner being.
And so by purposing to deceive, by purposing to seduce, they end up having an inner state of being of deception.
Deceiving and being deceived.
The heart of evil men is filled with deception.
Not deception for the person that they're committing the fraud against, but deception that resides in their own heart in that they themselves are the ones that end up being deceived.
Deceiving and being deceived as a result of that deception.
Deception resides in the heart of them that purpose to do evil.
Now, so the Bible says, "The heart of evil men is filled with deception, but to the counselors of peace," look back to your text now, "is joy."
But to the counselors of peace is joy.
So the heart of a counselor of peace, the byproduct of that is joy.
Someone who purposes to establish peace has the byproduct, they enjoy the state of being of having joy residing in their hearts.
Now in the gospel covenant, this is where we start to tie all this together, okay?
We've got all the pieces, we're going to tie them all together now.
And it's just, you just get ready for a blessing.
In the gospel covenant, God made Jesus our counselor of peace.
All right?
Look back in your text again, it says here, "But to the counselors of peace is joy."
God specifically made Jesus a counselor of peace.
Watch this, Zechariah chapter six, Zechariah chapter six, verses 12 through 13, "And speak unto him saying, 'Thus saith the Lord of hosts, saying, 'Behold, the man whose name is the branch.'"
Now, if you have a King James Bible, and you perhaps you haven't been able to turn there tonight, I know we don't have any slides popping up since we're not broadcasting at church, but that word "Branch" is in all capital letters.
This is referring to the Lord Jesus Christ.
He is referred to as a branch in the Bible or "The Branch" in the Old Testament, and for good reason.
So he says, "Behold, the man whose name is the branch."
So he says, "Behold him, behold that man whose name is the branch, and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the Lord."
Now, remember what Jesus said?
He said, he told Peter, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock, I will build my church."
What is the church?
We are the temple of the Lord, okay?
We are the temple that's made with living stones.
And so in the Old Testament, speaking of Jesus, calling him the branch, he says, "He shall build the temple of the Lord, even he shall build the temple of the Lord, and he shall bear the glory."
He shall bear the glory.
He's going to build the temple of the Lord, and he is going to have that glory of that temple on him.
Remember when God used to come into the temple, and the temple would be so filled with glory?
I believe it was Brother Shepard speaking about this the other day, or maybe it was Brother Doug, but I want to say it was Brother Shepard.
But the temple was so filled with glory, Moses couldn't go inside it.
Well, that glory is the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's going to build his church.
He's going to dwell in his church.
He's going to bear the glory.
Listen now, not only will he bear the glory, and not only will he build the church, but it says, "And shall sit and rule upon his throne."
So the branch is going to build a church, a temple.
The branch is going to have the glory of that temple, and the branch is going to sit and rule on his throne, and he shall be a priest upon his throne.
Oh man, you listen to this?
The one who builds the true temple of God is going to be God himself.
He's going to have the glory of God, because God said, "I won't share my glory with anybody."
So he's going to have the glory of God.
He's going to sit on his throne, and as he sits on his throne, he will serve as a priest.
So here is a king that builds a temple that rules as a priest.
In the authority and majesty of the king of kings, with all that power, he will enforce the kingdom rule of peace.
Listen now, and he says, "And the counsel of peace shall be between them both."
The counsel of peace, you getting that?
So you have the counselors of peace, and now you have the counsel of peace, and it will be between them both.
Talking about between him as king, between him as priest, there will be a counsel of peace between them both.
They will rule, he will rule as king, he will rule as priest, according to a predetermined counsel of peace.
And that counsel is talking about that purpose, that plan, that eternal plan that God had to redeem his people before the world began.
Jesus Christ is going to forever rule in the counsel of peace.
He'll rule as king, he'll rule as priest, and between them both will be the counsel of peace.
Jesus is king, and Jesus is priest, rule and redeem as part of God's plan to make peace with his people.
Christ rules in God's ordained plan to bring everlasting peace to us.
Now, as Jesus rules in that plan toward us, so we should live and walk in that plan toward others.
Matthew chapter 9, Matthew chapter 9, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 5, verse 9, Matthew chapter 5, verse 9, Jesus said, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called," what?
"The children of God."
Well, naturally so, because God is the one who has the counsel of peace, and whatever God determines, his before-determined counsel always stands.
It can never be overturned.
So God, the counselor of peace, says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, because those people will be called the children of God."
We who live in the gospel of Jesus Christ, we who accept the peace of God, you see what's happening?
The Bible says Jesus made peace to the blood of his cross.
When we accept the peace that Jesus offers us, we are making peace with God.
We then become the children of God.
And then when we share that gospel with others, what are we doing?
We're now walking and living in that counsel of peace.
We become counselors of that peace, where we determine to go out and preach the gospel of peace to other people, and help them come to find peace with God.
And so we are called the children of God.
First Peter chapter 3, verses 10 and 11.
Peter says, "For he that will love life and see good days, let him refrain his tongue from evil, and his lips that they speak no guile.
Let him eschew evil and do good, let him seek peace and ensue it, or pursue after it."
So God wants peace with his people.
God wants no conflict with his creatures.
He wants no turmoil.
He doesn't want to strive with us.
He wants peace.
And when we live and walk in that gospel covenant, then his spirit wants us to live and walk in peace as well.
That we forgive as we've been forgiven, according to the covenant of peace.
That we look and seek to share the gospel with others.
That we seek to make peace with our enemies the best that we can, according to the gospel of peace.
Counselors of peace, those who determine in their heart that as much as lies within them, as the scripture puts it, that they'll live peaceably with all men.
That's what the Bible tells us to do.
Those people have joy in their hearts, rather than deceit.
They have joy, the Bible says.
Why?
Because they are planning, advising, and encouraging people in the way of God's peace.
The greatest counsel of peace, of course, is the gospel message.
And it brings joy to us when we bring its peace to others.
Man, this morning when I got off the phone with that woman, and I'm listening to her cry in weeping tears of joy at the concept of what Jesus has done for her, and the stress and the relief and the chains that the lies of man had put on her just get broken by the gospel message.
And she says, "I want to start crying."
I said, "You go ahead and cry."
I said, "It's the best news that's ever been told."
You know what happened when I got to work that morning as I began contemplating on that woman and her peace with God?
It just filled my heart with joy.
With joy.
Counselors of peace have joy in their hearts.
The greatest counsel of peace is the gospel of Jesus Christ, and it brings joy to us when we bring its peace to others.
Those who have peace to share have joy because of it.
A counselor of peace seeks to serve his fellow man, but a divisor of evil, he seeks to harm his fellow man.
The divisor of evil hopes to fill his heart with joy just like the counselor of peace does.
That divisor of evil, he hopes, "Now, if I scam enough here, if I defraud over here, if I go make war with these people, and I take what they have from them, and I take the spoils of war, that's going to make my heart filled with joy.
That's going to give me happiness in life."
And so the person who devises evil, they also hope to fill their heart with joy by taking what doesn't belong to them, but unfortunately, for their sake, the joy ultimately escapes them.
Because in the end, their heart is not filled with joy, it's filled with deceit.
It's filled with deceit.
The counselor of peace gives peace and is filled with joy.
The counselor of peace gives something away and then in turn is filled with joy.
Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, Hebrews chapter 12, verse 2, "Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith."
Now, what did Jesus do?
God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son.
Why did He give His only begotten Son?
Why did Jesus give His life for us?
So He could make peace.
Remember, He made peace through the blood of His cross.
He is the peacemaker.
He is the counselor of peace.
"And for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross."
For what?
Not the deceit that was set before Him, but for the joy that was set before Him.
Why?
Because counselors of peace are filled with joy.
He made peace and God gave Him joy.
He said, "Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down on the right hand of the," what?
"The throne of God."
What throne?
The same throne that we just got through reading in the Old Testament that He sits down and rules on as a priest.
Our priest has all the authority in the world to make sure that our peace is forever enjoyed.
Remember what Jesus said, the counselor of peace?
Remember what the counselor of peace told His apostles?
"All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth, and go ye therefore."
And you preach this good news to everybody.
Oh my.
"To make peace, Jesus gave and was filled with joy.
To make evil, the devil takes away, and the devil in turn is filled with deceit."
The devil doesn't have any joy.
You ever thought about that?
The devil is absolutely miserable, and so he's always trying to make everybody else miserable.
And no matter how hard he works to make people miserable, and no matter how hard he works to try to steal and defraud, and steal the glory of God from him, to steal the worship of God from him, that's all he's doing is trying to purpose in his heart to defraud.
But in the end, his heart has no joy in it.
It only has deceit.
It has deceit.
Now why do we say it has deceit in his heart?
Do you know what comes at the end of deceit?
Have you ever been taken in a scam?
I can't ask for a show of hands.
I can't see you.
Have you ever been taken in a scam before?
A scam is implemented, fraud is implemented by deceit.
And you know what comes at the end of deceit?
You know what comes at the end of a fraud?
The fraud gives you hope.
I'm going to win this.
I'm going to do this.
I'm going to gain this.
The fraud always gives you hope.
You know what comes at the end of deceit?
Disappointment.
Every single time deceit ends with disappointment.
But do you know what comes at the end of joy?
That's a trick question.
Joy never comes to an end.
The joy of Jesus Christ, the joy of the counselor of peace never comes to an end.
The joy of Jesus never ends because he will rule on his throne forever.
And how does he rule forever?
Both as a king and as a priest and between them both is the counsel of peace.
His throne cannot exist apart from the gospel covenant.
Isn't that amazing?
Between them both is the counsel of peace.
So he by his own determination has with his predetermined counsel decided that forever and ever his kingdom will be ruled according to the everlasting gospel.
And because of the everlasting gospel, you and me, the children of God, the peacemakers have everlasting joy and that joy will never disappoint.
With that we'll go ahead and come to an end.
I thank God for you.
I thank God for you giving your attention tonight.
I thank God for the gospel.
Let's pray and close in prayer.
Father, we thank you so much for your precious word.
I thank you, Lord, for your incredible Old Testament prophecy that the branch builds his temple.
He bears that glory.
He then sits on a throne.
He becomes the king of that temple.
He becomes the priest of that temple.
And it's bound together by the counsel of peace, by the everlasting gospel.
Thank you for our peace that he made peace through the blood of his cross.
So what binds his ministry together as king is the cross where he died.
Forever we will be ruled by the cross.
Thank you so much.
And Lord, that is an authority we can bow our knee to and look up and say, thank you, Lord, for your amazing grace.
In Jesus precious name, amen.
